Edwards-Cain duo lead Catholic past CCS Lions 82-75
An axiom in basketball is that coaches prefer balanced scoring.
At Concord Christian School Monday night, Dec. 20, the scoring by Knoxville Catholic High School’s boys basketball team was unbalanced, to say the least. But Irish head coach Mike Hutchens wasn’t complaining.
Senior guard B J Edwards poured in 32 points — to go with junior guard Blue Cain’s 29 — as the Irish defeated the Lions 82-75.The final score was somewhat misleading.
“I was pleased,” Hutchens said. “Concord’s really improved. It was a good game for us, before we go to the Arby’s (Classic, in Bristol, beginning Monday, Dec. 27). It gives us some things to work on this time of year, as usual.”
“We played a really, really good team,” Lions head coach Michael Wilkins said. “When you play a team like that, you’ve just gotta be clicking on everything. We had a couple of three- or four-minute gaps where we just weren’t clicking offensively.”
After the Lions (10-3) went up 12-6 in the first, Catholic (8-2) went on a 21-6 run to lead 27-18 early in the second. Every point but two was scored by Edwards or Cain.
A 7-0 run by Concord cut the lead to three, but the Irish answered right back with 10 straight to lead 40-27. The half ended 48-34. Turnovers were a problem for the Lions.
“Turnovers were (a problem), but again, they’ve got guys that know how to fill gaps,” Wilkins said. “They can get three or four steals, get a couple of dunks. It was a streaky game.”
“It seemed disjointed at times,” Hutchens said. “Both teams were getting after it. A lot of loose balls, 50-50 balls. It was just a good scrapping game.”
“It was a fun game, getting us ready for Arby’s next week,” Edwards said. “We play fast, we have long arms and double-team them and try to trap them and force turnovers.”
The closest Concord would get in the second half until the final seconds would be 10, 58-48, behind seven straight, starting midway through the third. The Lions were led offensively by Chase Morgan with points 21. Jose Rodriguez added 19.
“Offensively I thought we played real well,” said Hutchens. “We’ve been averaging 13 steals a game. A lot of the steals we got from our half-court defense.”
